The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum (Birmingham, Alabama) has named Brian Case as Executive Director. Case joined Barber Companies in 2019 and established the Barber Advanced Design Center in 2021, serving as the center's Director. Before joining Barber, Case co-founded Motus Motorcycles in 2008, and served as design director and managing board member until 2018. Motus Motorcycles produced the MST and MSTR sport-touring motorcycles.
Rhode Island based Denali Electronics has announced a distribution agreement with Maverick Distributing of Edmonton, Alberta, as an official distributor for Denali products in Canada. Maverick is Western Canada's Premier Aftermarket Distributor of ATV, Motorcycle and Snowmobile Parts & Accessories; www.maverickdistributing.com
Tucker Powersports has advised its dealers that its relationship with Cardo Systems has ended. "While we have appreciated our partnership with Cardo, Tucker will continue to offer alternate products in the communication category. Sena products continue to be a strong option in this space, as well as our exclusive new partnership with Forcite."
PSB reports that Fun Motors of Longview, Texas, has been acquired by the industry's Brad and Misty Watson. The purchase marks the third location under the Watson's ownership in East Texas, alongside Broadway Powersports of Tyler and Dirty Deeds Powersports of Longview. Fun Motors of Longview sells for Honda, Suzuki and Triumph.
Graham Sykes, a 59-year-old self-professed "nutty inventor" and precision engineer from Yorkshire, England has broken another track record - this time the World Land Speed record for a steam powered motorcycle at 163 mph in 3.87 seconds over 1/8th mile - set at the UK/ITA World Records Speed week. Called 'Force of Nature', the thrust driven bike reached speeds of 169 mph using a self-designed steam powered rocket motor. The bike uses the latent energy of superheated, pressurised water that is then released through nozzles. The bike then turns this water to steam which thrusts it forwards. The prior record was 80.509 mph set in 2014 by American inventor Bill Barnes with a wheel driven bike. The invention is eco-friendly and uses nature, science and innovation to reach incredible speeds - "It's just a big bomb really, and it all started in my shed. I've taken the principles of chemistry and married them with precision engineering to create something I'm passionate about - fast bikes. I wanted to do this in a way that is sustainable for the planet (I've got 9 grandkids after all) and that demonstrates that you don't have to compromise on speed, you just have to get creative." Graham had previously shattered the British National record for the fastest three-wheeled vehicle in 2015 with his self-built V8 3-wheeler "SYKO," reaching a peak speed of 180.3 mph (171.4 mph average over the flying 1/4 mile). Next up, Sykes plans to break his own record and become the fastest steam-powered vehicle ever, aiming to take the Steam Rocket Bike over the 200-mph mark in the standing 1/8 mile.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com